I Melt With You

Q: What’s the movie about?

A:  4 44-year-old guys (Thomas Jane, Jeremy Piven, Rob Lowe, & Christian McKay) reunite every year for one of their birthdays and take more drugs than seems humanly possible, as they work out their lives.  Let me tell you something about the number 4, in China, it's considered such bad luck, that the elevators don't have any floors with the number 4 in them.  Yes, this does mean that if you live on the 50th floor of a building, your direct downstairs neighbors live on the 39th floor.

Q: Who’s in the movie?

A:  Thomas Jane, Jeremy Piven, Rob Lowe, Christian McKay, Carla Gugino, Tom Bower, Arielle Kebbel, Zander Eckhouse, Abhi Sinha, Sasha Grey, Joe Reegan, August Emerson, Rebecca Creskoff, Melora Hardin, Shane Roney

Q: Is this movie worth the price of admission?

A:  Proceed wit Caution.  This movie is love it or hate it.  Personally, I did both.

Q: Will this movie make me laugh?

A:  If you are paying very close attention.

Q: Will this movie make me cry?

A: There is a butt-load of crying in it, but will you relate?  That depends on how much you hate yourself and why.

Q: Will this movie be up for any awards?

A:  Surprisingly it's not yet.  And oddly, this is one overly-arty and borderline boring indy film that I would've voted for in a few categories-- particularly directing.

Q: How is the Acting?

A:  Christian McKay often seems to be in a much more melodramatic film than the others.  Jeremy Piven has moments where you begin to see his range, and others where you wonder if he'll ever be anyone besides Ari Gold again.  And Rob Lowe... Is it just me, or is he getting hotter with age.  I never went for him as a kid (I was a rebel), but now, his face is practically inhuman.

Q: How is the Directing?

A:  Mark Pellington directs this film as an independent film should be directed.  He shows individuality and a style all his own, without  coming off deliberately pretentious.  His shots are unpredictable and often have you wondering why he chose to shoot from a certain angle, but strangely, this time the thought is never accompanied by a feeling of anger.

Q: How is the story/script?

A:  I knew where this film was going to go about 30 minutes in, but it is such a strange place to go that I remained intrigued about how it would manage to go there.  Ultimately the characters' actions as a group are completely unjustifiable, despite the fact that their actions as indivuals make perfect sense.  I have you intrigued, don't I?

Q: Is there anything else worth mentioning about the movie?

A:  The soundtrack wants me to comment about it, but I'm not going to.

Q: Where can I see the trailer?

A: I Melt With You

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The Debt

Q: What’s the movie about?

A: Three Mossad agents (Jessica Chastain, Sam Worthington, & Marton Csokas) go on an assassination mission against a German, Nazi, Doctor (Jesper Christensen), but when they get older (Helen Mirren, Ciaran Hinds, & Tom Wilkinson) they realize they have a debt to pay.

Q: Who’s in the movie?

A: Jessica Chastain, Sam Worthington, Maron Csokas, Helen Mirren, Tom Wilkinson, Jesper Christensen, Ciaran Hinds, Romi Aboulafia

Q: Is this movie worth the price of admission?

A: Proceed with Caution. Going in it seems like it will be an original and special film, but underneath all the intrigue, there's not that much there.

Q: Will this movie make me laugh?

A: The bad guy has most of the funny lines, so that's sick and twisted.

Q: Will this movie make me cry?

A: Mossad agents do actually have something in common with the Germans. They're cold. Not that there aren't any emotions in the film, but the characters are all so reserved that you can hardly play along.

Q: Will this movie be up for any awards?

A: It certainly hopes to be, but I can't think of any it could get besides maybe a Supporting Actress award for Jessica Chastain. But if the Academy is gonna give her that one, I'd rather see her get it for The Help.

Q: How is the Acting?

A: Helen Mirren may have top billing, but this movie belongs to Jessica Chastain. Who is she? Where did she come from? I don't know, but she just came out in The Tree of Life, The Help, The Debt, and she still has Sundance winner Take Shelter and William Shakespeare's Gerard Butler and Ralph Fiennes vehicle, Coriolanus, coming out later this year. Which is why my bet on Academy recognition isn't such a long shot.

Q: How is the Directing?

A: The interweaving of the past and the present is artful and appropriate, but I'd like to give most of the credit for that to the script.

Q: How is the story/script?

A: Structurally it's a very interesting storyline, but the moral may be a little too subtle and unrelatable for me.

Q: Where can I see the trailer?

A: The Debt Trailer

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In a Better World

Q: What’s the movie about?

A: Two outcast school boys (William Johnk Juels Nielsen & Markus Rygaard) begin to retaliate against the violence and injustice of their assaulters and it goes too far.

Q: Who’s in the movie?

A: Mikael Persbrandt, Trine Dyrholm, Ulrich Thomsen, William Johnk Juels Nielsen, Markus Rygaard, Bodil Jorgensen, Toke Lars Bjarke, Simon Maafaard Holm, Odiege Matthew, Elsebeth Steentoft, Anette Stovelbek, Kim Bodnia, Martin Buch

Q: Is this movie worth the price of admission?

A: Proceed with Caution. As is the case with most of Susanne Bier's films, you have to have a strong stomach and a fair amount of patience to endure it, but if you can, you will find you have a lot of respect for how angry she makes you feel.

Q: Will this movie make me laugh?

A: Susanne Bier doesn't believe in humor.

Q: Will this movie make me cry?

A: Cry for a better world maybe. But mostly, it will inspire you not to have children, because they are the ones who will have to live in this one.

Q: Will this movie be up for any awards?

A: I predict that it will win the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, last year.

Q: How is the Acting?

A: If the Academy really felt compelled to nominate kids for acting awards, these are the ones they should've nominated. Both Markus Rygaard and William Johnk Juels Nielsen blow Hailee Steinfeld out of the water. And if their characters had met her in a swimming pool, they probably would've done it literally.

Q: How is the Directing?

A: Susanne Bier is one of the original Dogme 95 crew, and 16 years since that Danish filmmaking philosophy was founded, she hasn't seemed to veer too much from it. Some of the rules she still follows are: shooting solely on location and hand held. One of the rules she no longer follows is: The director must not be credited.

Q: How is the story/script?

A: Intense, vicious, and true to how quickly sorrow, depression and desperation can turn even the most average of us into destructive psychopaths.

Q: Where can I see the trailer?

A: In a Better World Trailer

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No Strings Attached

Q: What’s the movie about?

A: A guy and a girl (Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman) decide to use each other for sex, without any expectation that it'll go anywhere.

Q: Who’s in the movie?

A: Natalie Portman, Ashton Kutcher, Kevin Kline, Cary Elwes, Greta Gerwig, Lake Bell, Olivia Thirlby, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Jake Johnson, Mindy Kaling, Talia Balsam, Ophelia Lovibond, Guy Branum, Ben Lawson, Jennifer Irwin, Adhir Kalyan, Abby Elliott

Q: Is this movie worth the price of admission?

A: Proceed with Caution. Everybody knows that when you don't have any expectations, that's when things go well. And everybody also knows exactly how this story is going to go well. But what it lacks in conflict, suspense, and surprises, it makes up for in utter cuteness.

Q: Will this movie make me laugh?

A: More than a lot of romantic comedies, but less than a lot of R-rated comedies.

Q: Will this movie make me cry?

A: It's all too predictable to get you crying, but when Kevin Kline tears up it's actually one of the better laughs.

Q: Will this movie be up for any awards?

A: Most Authentic Performance by an Actress in a Romantic Comedy. I don't know what it is that Natalie Portman is doing, but it just works.

Q: How is the Acting?

A: Ashton Kutcher finally found a leading lady who's prettier than he is! Also, beautiful guest performance by Lake Bell. What she does in this movie isn't as obvious as she makes it look.

Q: How is the Directing?

A: I once had a directing teacher who said that 90% of a director's work is having good taste in material. And that's what Ivan Reitman does best. I know this because I've seen an s-load of his movies, and I can't remember a single shot from any of them. Okay, that's a lie, there is one shot I remember-- but who could forget the slow pan, in Twins, over to Arnold Schwarzenegger's starry-eyed grin, after the first time he has sex?

Q: How is the story/script?

A: The premise holds together by a string because Ashton Kutcher is clearly in love with Natalie Portman from the first, second, third, and forth time they meet. So when they say things like, "Let's keep doing this until one of us starts to have feelings for the other," it rings completely false because he already has feelings for her. Meanwhile, her excuses for not getting more involved with him are convoluted, contradictory, and mostly very thin.

Q: Is there anything else worth mentioning about the movie?

A: The line from the trailer where he says he can't date her because she's his oldest friend is not in the movie. This is not a friends with benefits situation, because they were never friends first. I kept waiting for the part where they would be friends, and it never came. This lacking element caused me great confusion about why they weren't giving a relationship a shot, since they were already in one.

Q: Where can I see the trailer?

A: No Strings Attached Trailer

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Love and Other Drugs

Q: What’s the movie about?

A: A heartless pharmaceutical rep (Jake Gyllenhaal) falls in love with a Parkinson's patient (Anne Hathaway).

Q: Who’s in the movie?

A: Jake Gyllenhaal, Anne Hathaway, Oliver Platt, Hank Azaria, Josh Gad, Gabriel Macht, Judy Greer, George Segal, Jill Clayburgh, Kate Jennings Grant, Katheryn Winnick, Kimberly Scott

Q: Is this movie worth the price of admission?

A: Proceed with Caution. When making your decision about whether or not to see this movie, there's really only one question you need to ask yourself: do you want to see Anne Hathaway's boobs? If it's any help, I can advise you that they are very nice looking.

Q: Will this movie make me laugh?

A: Parkinson's disease is the one that gives you the shakes, so it goes without saying that it has been the source of much laughter through the ages. And if you're one of those a-holes who thinks that's funny, then yes.

Q: Will this movie make me cry?

A: Not really, but I'm still sad that Parkinson's sent Michael J. Fox into early retirement. I miss his comedic genius almost as much as I miss Leslie Nielsen's.

Q: Will this movie be up for any awards?

A: Did you hear? Anne Hathaway is hosting the Academy Awards this year, along with James Franco? This raises a lot of questions for me, like: What is the Academy thinking? And, why would Anne Hathaway and James Franco want to take that much time out of their schedules during the height of their careers, just to host a self-indulgent Awards show that no one will remember one week after it has passed? And mostly, how much time will each of them have to spend rehearsing their reaction to the moment when someone else takes home the statue they had hoped to win in the Best Actor and Best Actress categories... Awkward.

Q: How is the Acting?

A: Jake Gyllenhaal gives his most convincing sexy-love face since the gay-cowboy movie. Anne Hathaway gives her most convincing I'm-screwy-so-don't-mess-with-me act since the got-out-of-rehab-right-on-time-to-mess-up-my-sister's wedding movie. And Hank Azaria pretends to be someone with a heart... Kinda.

Q: How is the Directing?

A: It looks like it was a lot of fun. Ed Zwick goes from multiple angles of making out to multiple angles of naked bodies and back. It was probably a closed set 50% of the time, and it's hard to imagine how anybody was able to focus on work.

Q: How is the story/script?

A: The more I think about it, the more I think that Ed Zwick wrote this piece (with Charles Randolph) just so that he could spend the next few months filming two sexy, naked twenty-somethings doing it. Perv.

Q: Where can I see the trailer?

A: http://www.moviefone.com/movie/love-and-other-drugs/10022018/trailers

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Paper Man

Q: What’s the movie about?

A: A wanna-be novelist (Jeff Daniels) with an imaginary friend (Ryan Reynolds) befriends a teenager (Emma Stone) as he tries to overcome his writers' block and his general fear of being alive.

Q: Who’s in the movie?

A: Jeff Daniels, Emma Stone, Lisa Kudrow, Ryan Reynolds, Kieran Culkin, Hunter Parrish

Q: Is this movie worth the price of admission?

A: Stop! It seems I've stumbled into yet another indy film that's just trying to be quirky for quirk's sake.

Q: Will this movie make me laugh?

A: Since you're probably not going to see this, I'll just tell you the one brilliant joke this movie offers. When they're trying to come up with book titles, one of the suggestions on the list is "Memoir of an Amnesiac." Now that's a movie I'd like to see!

Q: Will this movie make me cry?

A: I'll tell you what's not brilliant, the title they actually agreed was brilliant. It was Paper Man.

Q: Will this movie be up for any awards?

A: This script was developed through the prestigious Sundance Labs. I've said it before and I'll say it again: the good people at Sundance have really bad taste.

Q: How is the Acting?

A: Emma Stone is really a great actress, and I think I finally figured out why her weird little face is so damn cute-- she looks like a Japanese anime. And Hunter Parrish, who's also a pretty face, seems totally uncomfortable in the skin of a low-class Long Islander.

Q: How is the Directing?

A: The first shot of Ryan Reynolds, the imaginary friend, showing up is done brilliantly. I only wish the husband and wife co-writing/directing team of Michele & Kieran Mulroney (brother of Dermot) had put that much thought into each of the times he shows up, because sometimes it comes off kinda shlocky.

Q: How is the story/script?

A: Look, I've got nothing against quirkiness, in fact, I love it, but the dialogue and character choices still have to make sense to a normal person. I asked myself, "Why would that person do that?!" way too many times. BTW, guess who's writing the sequel to Sherlock Holmes?

Q: Where can I see the trailer?

A: http://www.moviefone.com/movie/paper-man/1424116/trailers

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Funny People

Q: What’s the movie about?

A: A famous actor (Adam Sandler) is diagnosed with a fatal disease, so he goes back to his stand-up comedy roots and hires an aspiring comedian (Seth Rogen) as a joke writer, but we all know that secretly, he's really hired this assistant to be his only friend.

Q: Who’s in the movie?

A: Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, Leslie Mann, Eric Bana, Jonah Hill, Jason Schwartzman, Aubrey Plaza, Maude Apatow, Iris Apatow, RZA, Aziz Ansari, Torsten Voges

Q: Is this movie worth the price of admission?

A: Go! This realistic comedy about a serious subject matter is not as funny or broad as Apatow's usual fare, but it's not meant to be. In fact, if it weren't for all the jokes about male genitalia, this might almost pass for a movie by James L. Brooks.

Q: Will this movie make me laugh?

A: A lot more than a movie that some people are calling a "drama" should. And strangely, some of the biggest laughs come from easy listening singer, James Taylor.

Q: Will this movie make me cry?

A: Probably not, but Rogen has a pretty funny crying scene at The Palm restaurant. He ruins The Palm.

Q: Will this movie be up for any awards?

A: If Apatow is truly trying to follow in the footsteps of James L. Brooks-- which I believe he very consciously is-- then Academy Award nominations are definitely in his mind's eye. The only thing standing in his way now is his inner teenager. You know, the one who insists on using every male character to describe all the facets of having a dingaling and every imaginable thing that can be done with it. Audiences like those jokes, but the Academy has a hard time taking them seriously.

Q: How is the Acting?

A: Back for seconds, the Apatow sisters, Maude and Iris, once again steal every scene they're in. Everyone else pretty much repeats their usual shtick-- which is a good thing, since we all seem to like it so much. And there's something about Jason Schwatzman in this one that isn't quite so abrasive. You still won't like his character, but it's not as easy as it looks to hate him.

Q: How is the Directing?

A: In the opening scenes, you can tell that Apatow is trying to step up his game and be seen as more than just a comedy guy. But his existing success has put him in a position where the studios can no longer tell him to keep his movies under 2hrs, which is too bad for him, because at 2 1/2 hours, it would have been a better film if someone had forced him to rein it in.

Q: How is the story/script?

A: The portrayal of the loneliness of being a rich and famous person is touching and relatable, even to those of us who are not famous. But the extended running time comes from having an indulgent story structure, which tells one story, and just as we think the film is going to wrap up, launches into a whole second story, introducing several important new characters, and going in a direction that is interesting, but not necessary. Had these two stories been intertwined, the film would have been both shorter and stronger.

Q: Where can I see the trailer?

A: http://www.moviefone.com/movie/funny-people/33221/trailers

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The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

Q: What’s the movie about?

A: When an SS Commander gets a promotion to go run a concentration camp, his 8-year-old son is so starved for companionship, that he secretly forms a friendship with an imprisoned Jewish boy, through an electric fence.

Q: Who’s in the movie?

A: Vera Farmiga, David Thewlis, Asa Butterfield, Jack Scanlon, Amber Beattie, Rupert Friend, Cara Horgan, Richard Johnson, David Hayman, Sheila Hancock

Q: Is this movie worth the price of admission?

A: Proceed with Caution. This is certainly a powerful movie-- how could it not be? It's about the Holocaust-- but it's not for those who need their conclusions tied up in a pretty pink ribbon.

Q: Will this movie make me laugh?

A: This movie is for very serious audiences, so don't laugh too loud, lest you offend someone.

Q: Will this movie make me cry?

A: It doesn't deliberately pull on your heart-strings and bang you over the head with emotions and music like a Hollywood movie would, but if you fill in the unspoken thoughts and feelings in your head, you might still cry, because it is pretty sad.

Q: Will this movie be up for any awards?

A: You have to admit the title is great! What a cute little way of describing a small child who is put in a prison camp to starve, perform hard labor, and die for no good reason.

Q: How is the Acting?

A: Vera Farmiga is in her usual top form, and looking more stunning than usual, I might add. And the little boys, Asa Butterfield and Jack Scanlon, take their time with the moments and dialogue, to really think about what they're saying, as if they weren't acting at all.

Q: How is the Directing?

A: The film is beautifully shot, as the tones of the lighting shift from warm to cold, following their move from their happy life in Berlin, to the countryside, where their neighbors are concentration camp prisoners, and their lives becomes increasingly more and more grim.

Q: How is the story/script?

A: The story is appropriately understated as it depicts how even the people closest to the top SS Commanders had virtually no idea how badly the Jews were being treated in the camps, and how they, too, could be adversely affected by the atrocities surrounding them.

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